Supercell has just announced a May 18th update. This update will include the balancing of the Royal Giant, Freeze, Furnace, Fire Spirits, Guards, Miner, Lava Hound, Elixir Collector, Knight, Cannon, Tesla, Golem, Skeletons, and Tombstone. It also will fix the epic xp "bug". For full details, visit The Clash Royale Official Website. Lets take a look at how this update will affect card usage and popularity.
Royal Giant- The Royal Giant will receive a 4% damage reduction. This means instead of dealing 78-241 damage, it will deal 74.78-231.59 damage (per hit). Basically the Royal Giant hardly changed, as the reason why Royal Giant was so strong was its range. The Royal Giant will still be a very strong card and I expect its usage to still be extremely high.
Freeze- The Freeze will receive a 1 second reduction. This is pretty significant, as it is essentially nerfing the freeze by 13-20%. What this means is freeze becomes a garbage cards at low levels. High leveled freeze might see some use, but definitely expect a big decrease in popularity.
Furnace- The Furnace will have its elixer cost reduced to 4 (from 5), while its lifetime and hitpoints decreased as well. Supercell calls this a buff, but i dont really think so. The furnace hasn't seen much use because it can be countered super easily, and unlike other spawners cannot deal damage to towers on their lonesome. Expect a low usage rate still.
Fire Spirit- The fire spirit will have its radius increased by 25%, and this solves the super annoying problem of not being able to hit the entire minion horde. However, the current reason why fire spirits hasnt been popular is that there are usually better options at 2 elixir, usually spear Goblins. Maybe it will see a slight increase in usage, but dont expect much.
Guards- The guards will have their hitpoints and damage increased by 8%, something i feel is much needed. At 4 elixir, it was simply way too weak to be viable against anything except for the pekka. In my opinion skeletons at 3 elixir less still remains the better option, but i guess only time will tell.
Miner- The miner will see a 6% increase in HP. Honestly i feel this is kind of ridiculous. The miner was already a strong card and dedinitely the best out of the 3 in the recent update. It is versatile, cheap, and annoying for opponents to deal with. It already had decent HP, and at 3 elixir doesnt need more. This will definitely be a high use card for those lucky enough to have it.
Lava Hound- The Lava Hound will have its damage increased. This includes its pups. The Lava Hound simply felt weak, with the lowest damage in the game. At a high cost of 7 elixir, your opponents can punish you with a counterpush, while your hound barely dents the enemy tower. Definitely a needed change, we will see how effective it will be.
Elixir Collector- The Elixir Collector will recieve a 9% HP Reduction (again). This makes it much more susceptible to spells like fireball and lightning. I still expect it to be used widely, as the extra elixir can still singlehandedly win a game for you. My prediction is that fireball will see a large increase in usage because of this.
Knight- The knight will get its HP increased by 10%. The problem with the knight was that there were simply better options for 1 or 2 elixir, namely the valkyrie. However with this update i can see the knight emerging as a cheap tank for quick counterpushes. Keep in mind the knight was never a bad card, it was just not as good as others.
Cannon- The cannon will have its HP reduced again. This time by 5%. I dont really get why supercell does this while not nerfing the hog in some way, as the cannon is played solely to counter hogs. 5% isn't that significant, and the cannon will still be popular due to hogs.
Tesla- Boy we havent seen the tesla in quite a while. However with its HP increased, and the tesla being a good counter to Royal Giant, maybe the tesla will see a rise again.
Golem- The Golem will see a slight increase in HP. However, this will have little to no use against its primary counter, the Inferno Tower. At 8 elixir it is usually too great of an investment, so i dont think we will see its usage changed that much.
Witch- The witch will recieve another damage increase, this time by 10%. I actually think this will make it viable now, as the Witch is now pretty darn good against barbarians and minion horde. This could be a deadly combo paired with Royal Giant, and my prediction is we will see more Witches and less Wizards.
Tombstone- The tombstone will be buffed in 2 ways. Skeletons in general got buffed, and the Tonbstone's HP did as well. This is actually pretty significant, as hogs take 2 hits to kill it instead of one. Maybe we will see this rise as an alternative to cannon as a counfer to hogs.
Skeletons- Skeletons get a HP and Damage increase in this update. I have always felt that skeletons were great value at 1 elixir, and this just makes it even stronger. In addition, this indirectly buffs the witch and tombstone, which both have recieved direct buffs this update as well. I see a lot of people replacing goblins with skeletons.
Freeze- The Freeze will receive a 1 second reduction. This is pretty significant, as it is essentially nerfing the freeze by 13-20%. What this means is freeze becomes a garbage cards at low levels. High leveled freeze might see some use, but definitely expect a big decrease in popularity.
Furnace- The Furnace will have its elixer cost reduced to 4 (from 5), while its lifetime and hitpoints decreased as well. Supercell calls this a buff, but i dont really think so. The furnace hasn't seen much use because it can be countered super easily, and unlike other spawners cannot deal damage to towers on their lonesome. Expect a low usage rate still.
Fire Spirit- The fire spirit will have its radius increased by 25%, and this solves the super annoying problem of not being able to hit the entire minion horde. However, the current reason why fire spirits hasnt been popular is that there are usually better options at 2 elixir, usually spear Goblins. Maybe it will see a slight increase in usage, but dont expect much.
Guards- The guards will have their hitpoints and damage increased by 8%, something i feel is much needed. At 4 elixir, it was simply way too weak to be viable against anything except for the pekka. In my opinion skeletons at 3 elixir less still remains the better option, but i guess only time will tell.
Miner- The miner will see a 6% increase in HP. Honestly i feel this is kind of ridiculous. The miner was already a strong card and dedinitely the best out of the 3 in the recent update. It is versatile, cheap, and annoying for opponents to deal with. It already had decent HP, and at 3 elixir doesnt need more. This will definitely be a high use card for those lucky enough to have it.
Lava Hound- The Lava Hound will have its damage increased. This includes its pups. The Lava Hound simply felt weak, with the lowest damage in the game. At a high cost of 7 elixir, your opponents can punish you with a counterpush, while your hound barely dents the enemy tower. Definitely a needed change, we will see how effective it will be.
Elixir Collector- The Elixir Collector will recieve a 9% HP Reduction (again). This makes it much more susceptible to spells like fireball and lightning. I still expect it to be used widely, as the extra elixir can still singlehandedly win a game for you. My prediction is that fireball will see a large increase in usage because of this.
Knight- The knight will get its HP increased by 10%. The problem with the knight was that there were simply better options for 1 or 2 elixir, namely the valkyrie. However with this update i can see the knight emerging as a cheap tank for quick counterpushes. Keep in mind the knight was never a bad card, it was just not as good as others.
Cannon- The cannon will have its HP reduced again. This time by 5%. I dont really get why supercell does this while not nerfing the hog in some way, as the cannon is played solely to counter hogs. 5% isn't that significant, and the cannon will still be popular due to hogs.
Tesla- Boy we havent seen the tesla in quite a while. However with its HP increased, and the tesla being a good counter to Royal Giant, maybe the tesla will see a rise again.
Golem- The Golem will see a slight increase in HP. However, this will have little to no use against its primary counter, the Inferno Tower. At 8 elixir it is usually too great of an investment, so i dont think we will see its usage changed that much.
Witch- The witch will recieve another damage increase, this time by 10%. I actually think this will make it viable now, as the Witch is now pretty darn good against barbarians and minion horde. This could be a deadly combo paired with Royal Giant, and my prediction is we will see more Witches and less Wizards.
Tombstone- The tombstone will be buffed in 2 ways. Skeletons in general got buffed, and the Tonbstone's HP did as well. This is actually pretty significant, as hogs take 2 hits to kill it instead of one. Maybe we will see this rise as an alternative to cannon as a counfer to hogs.
Skeletons- Skeletons get a HP and Damage increase in this update. I have always felt that skeletons were great value at 1 elixir, and this just makes it even stronger. In addition, this indirectly buffs the witch and tombstone, which both have recieved direct buffs this update as well. I see a lot of people replacing goblins with skeletons.
Conclusion
To basically sum things up:
- Expect a lot ofHog-Zap and a decrease in Hog-Freeze
- Skeletons will probably replace most stab goblins
- Witch will probably see an increase in use while wizard sees a decrease
- Knight may emerge as a cheap tank
- Miner will become a super strong card
- Furnace, Fire Spirits, Golem, Royale Giant, Elixir Collector, and Cannon should see about the same usage as before
- Lava Hound might actually be useful
- Guards are still too costly
- Freeze will disappear for lower Arenas